chrisjpainter

When did I say they're not cheating? They are. It's absurd. But cheating's hardly unique to football. Should we really be distinguishing between types of cheating? Having one type of cheating as more acceptable than another seems a bit daft. Points mean prizes. If I had my way, if a player was found to be guilty of diving or feigning injuries to stop the game (now more prevalent with new head injury rules) then points are docked. It'd soon dry up once a team has got relegated or missed out on European football in May because a player took a dive in August.

Sports people will try and get away with as much as they can. It's not limited to football. Cheating goes on in the scrum all the time, it's just a different type. All they're trying to do is cheat the rules of the scrum in a way that doesn't get spotted - or better still, is seen as a penalty infringement by the opposition. Commentators call it 'being clever,' but it's no different in essence to taking a dive. Subtler, maybe, but it's still cheating. Violence in football is way down, it's simply not true to say it's got worse. It used to be part and parcel of the footballing culture at club and country level, but the days of blanket bans for teams and nations are, at least in England, mostly a thing of the past. Abroad it's a bit of a different story and there's still a problem with England internationals, but real pitched battles between fans don't happen as they used to. And this idea of rugby being a thug's game played by gentlemen is complete nonsense. between 2007 and 2016, Dylan Hartley was banned for a total of 60 weeks for biting, eye-gouging, punching, verbal abuse, elbowing and headbutting, plus a few other bits and pieces. What did England do? Made him captain. In general, I agree. Two words though: Nikita Parris. She's as good a sniper victim as anyone in the prem!

I love football, but it does have some right numpties in it... Copa Libertadores: Watch Palmeiras player's 'ridiculous' dive after being 'pushed' by referee - BBC Sport The Copa Libertadores is the South American version of the Champions League, so the best domestic clubs in the whole of South America. Good grief...

We watched it and loved every mad moment. True free-running Baa-Baas rugby - with some NFL thrown in for good measure. What a lovely way for the retirees to go out. And it was good that 30,000 stayed around to watch even though the men's was cancelled and they were offered full refunds if they so chose. Some of the women didn't even get to the ground until half an hour before kick off, but it didn't show. A great way to round off a fun autumn international period

Good. Nothing to do with racism, I just don't like him as a commentator!

I'm a Union fan, myself, so know little of actually playing that weird league thing, but this guy's got such humility and integrity about him. I think he represents the very best of all that sport can bring to humanity. Hopefully he'll get the recognition he deserves!

He was the Star in a Reasonable Priced Car years ago. Clarkson suggested that most politicians have a veneer of competence and are blithering idiots underneath, but Boris was the other way around. Johnson replied, 'Although you can't discount the possibility that underneath this carefully crafted veneer of a blithering idiot, there lurks a blithering idiot'

This England women's team. Incredible stuff. Abbie Dow is in a league of her own out there

You will be stunned to learn the BBC has not run the story yet.

Azeem Rafiq accused of sending 'creepy' and 'vulgar' messages to teenage girl | Metro News

Phew. The very definition of by the skin of their teeth! Wales were lucky that Australia were down a player for most of the game, because when it came to attacking rugby, the Wallabies looked electric.

That's not started well. Lovely try though. I really hope Rassie Erasmus has another meltdown over decisions again. I'm sure he can find something to throw his toys out over.

THAT WAS BRUTAL!

I will be if we stop giving pens away! We've been lucky Pollard's lost his radar.

Good call. Thanks Ditch

Thanks chaps. the disc's only about 1 1/2" thick and 9" in diameter, so that should work pretty well. Drying it out shouldn't be too much of a problem. Is there mileage in using the oven? Ours stays warm for a good while after dinner's been cooked and eaten, so an hour in the oven post dinner cooking might help with the drying?

It's an absolute mess, isn't it? What's bizarre about the Tim Paine issue is that there was an investigation into it when it happened in 2017 and he was 'exonerated'. So I'm not sure why he feels the need to resign. There's rumour going round that CA wanted a better captain in place for the start of The Ashes and this provided the perfect reason for Paine to step down, but not have to leave the team thus meaning they'd need to find another wicketkeeper. Who knows if that's what's going on, but it's hardly ideal preparation for The Ashes! Suddenly it's not England vs Australia, it's The Racists vs The Sexists. What a time to be alive.

I think it depends how they're being used. If they're woven into the nest, then they will be insulating as air is trapped and warmed, but crucially retained. But if the feathers are loose, then the trapped air is all too easily replaced by cold air, so they have no insulating properties, so are essentially just taking up nest space - or providing homes for fungal spores or parasites, neither of which would be good for a nest. Most nest builders are fastidious about cleanliness, so the scientists were looking for an explanation as to why some birds kept loose and specifically white feathers.

Some unusual research going on here. It suggests some birds use collections of specifically loose, white feathers to simulate a predator attack to stop other birds stealing nest sites. Birds fake their own death to protect their nests | Natural History Museum (nhm.ac.uk) The team found nests that were being used by the builders, but had loose down feathers collected in them. They weren't bound up in the nest matrix, so were otherwise useless, but still retained. Scientists tested motives behind this with different coloured feathers and just white squares (to rule out it being just colour related). Nest squatters took much longer to move in with collected loose white feathers than anything else. In a third of cases, they refused to go in at all. The theory being that collected white feathers look like down feathers plucked after a bird murder. The species involved in there test were cavity nesters: Blue tits, tree swallows and pied flycatchers.

Ah that's most useful, thanks. That's the kind of thing I'm hoping to be able to do.

I had cause to fell an ash the other day. Whilst doing the cutting up afterwards, one of the boughs had rot in it which gave a great representation of Batman. My 9 year old nephew's a batman fan and would love the ring of wood, but is there any way of preserving it so the rot is permanent in that shape, or would it be permanent in this shape now it's been felled anyway? any ideas for treating it too? thanks!

I'm not sure they'll ever be back!

Another one for the zombie arena. 10 years on: not bad, but not anything like a record...

New turn of events!

As @tiny timmetioned, a mattock's best for tree roots, but for bramble roots, is it worth looking at a ragwort fork? They're still bent tines, but they're short and solid. and don't bend out. Great for intended purpose, but also work on brambles and small saplings.